A California man who cracked the face defend of 1 police officer, unloaded pepper spray on others and bludgeoned numerous officers with poles, boards and even his toes was sentenced to twenty years in jail Friday, the longest sentence handed all the way down to any participant within the violence on the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.
Prosecutors known as David Dempsey “political violence personified,” and U.S. District Decide Royce Lamberth agreed, saying that even on a day that “will likely be seared into our nation’s reminiscence as a massacre,” Dempsey’s conduct was “exceptionally egregious.”
Of the greater than 1,400 folks charged with crimes associated to the Jan. 6 assault — a violent assault by supporters of former President Donald Trump in search of to forestall the switch of energy to President Joe Biden — solely former Proud Boys chief Enrique Tarrio has been sentenced to a lengthier jail time period: 22 years. However Tarrio was not current on the Capitol that day. Moderately, a jury convicted him of orchestrating a plan for his Proud Boys allies to breach the Capitol and assist the bigger mob overwhelm police.
Dempsey’s sentence outstrips even the one handed all the way down to Oath Keepers chief Stewart Rhodes, who was sentenced to 18 years in jail final yr for equally orchestrating a plan to violently impede the switch of energy.
Not solely did Dempsey, who pleaded responsible to assault, persist in his violence for hours on Jan. 6, however he additionally got here to the Capitol with an enormous rap sheet that included different situations of political violence. All through the riot, Dempsey positioned himself on the heart of probably the most violent episodes, significantly within the Capitol’s Decrease West Terrace tunnel, the positioning of probably the most excessive violence that day. There he climbed atop different rioters to analysis the police line and wielded wood poles and different objects to try to injure them.
A number of of the officers who defended the Capitol that day sat within the entrance of the courtroom observing the proceedings, watching silently as prosecutors recounted Dempsey’s intense assaults. One officer who bore the brunt of Dempsey’s assault, Sgt. Jason Mastony, described the second that Dempsey bashed his head with a crutch, cracking his face defend and inflicting a gash.
“I collapsed and caught myself towards the wall as my ears rang,” Mastony mentioned in a written assertion to the courtroom.
Prosecutors pressed Lamberth to impose a steep sentence partially as a result of Jan. 6 was not an aberration for Dempsey. He has repeatedly gotten violent throughout protests and has used chemical sprays to disable counterprotesters. Prosecutors performed a video of Dempsey utilizing a skateboard to assault a protester at earlier rallies, with some moments of violence prompting gasps in Lamberth’s courtroom.
When it was his flip to deal with the decide, Dempsey described a lifetime of destitution and abuse because the supply of his violence.
“Life has been a rollercoaster of highs and lows,” Dempsey mentioned, studying from a letter.
He described adverse interactions with police as fueling a few of his anger, and he apologized to the officers he attacked, saying he had been consumed by emotion. He insisted he didn’t come to Washington that day “hellbent on violence,” or to overturn an election.
Dempsey’s sentence landed with a selected impression on his household, who had been current within the courtroom, together with his 7-year-old daughter. After the sentencing, the younger lady pranced within the hallway as her mom cried. A member of the family mentioned the lady had simply celebrated her birthday Thursday and isn’t “capable of perceive what’s occurring.”
Solely a handful of different Jan. 6 rioters with out ties to extremist teams have confronted sentences of 10 or extra years. They embrace Peter Schwartz, who had a equally lengthy rap sheet and obtained a 14-year sentence; Daniel “D.J.” Rodriguez, who drove a taser into the neck of D.C. police officer Michael Fanone; and Thomas Webster, a retired NYPD officer who tried to gouge the eyes of a D.C. police officer throughout a very vicious brawl.
